Stoatally amazing

Nidderdale Moorland Group

Spring is a busy time for a male Stoat as he travels around his territory looking for any females who may have given birth for not only will he then mate again with the female, but also with any female kits she has given birth too who are sexually mature at 2-3 weeks old whilst they are still in the nest and blind, deaf and hairless before weaning begins.

Any females then producing embryos will go through a process called 'delayed implantation' for the next 9-10 months. The embryos travel down into the womb and then remain there until the following spring when they will be implanted and an active pregnancy begins which lasts for 4 weeks before a litter of around 6-13 kits will be born.

Stoat diets vary with the seasons in relation to what prey is available and now, as we are in spring and approaching peak nesting time, the eggs, chicks and adults of any of our ground nesting birds are an easy target for these opportunist predators who are active both day and night.